


Iron Fin

by AnonEhouse



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Historical, Captivity, Gen, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, mermaid Pepper, merman Rhodey, merman tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-22
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-24 15:44:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3774313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonEhouse/pseuds/AnonEhouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merman Tony is captured and given to Lord Rogers as a pet. Physically unable to speak human language, Tony understands what people say, but can't convince Rogers he's actually an intelligent being, not merely a fascinating rare creature.</p><p>Bucky is protective of Steve, and his image, but if his lordship wants to spend hours at the fish pond watching his new pet swim around, well, Bucky is only a knight, he can't say no to anything Steve wants.</p><p>And then Regent Schmidt stirs up trouble.</p><p>(One scene is a bit Winter Soldiery, as Bucky loses his arm.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Shiny Bait

(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)

Tony couldn't resist watching the land people, trying to learn from them. It wasn't that they were any smarter than his people, but they had natural advantages. Like fire. And with fire, the ability to make metal. He'd found a few metal tools in shipwrecks, but they were generally too corroded to be much use. They didn't last long even when they were fairly good to start with, and he'd been as careful as he could with them, wiping them with dry seaweed and storing them just above the tide mark on small islets. There were metals that held up better, gold and copper among them, but they were too soft for tools. He'd ruined a lot of coins, experimenting. He had so many ideas! He could make wonderful things, but they all fell apart, far too quickly. 

Mer tend to drift in and out of their family pods, so no one really noticed when Tony swam off one night, and didn't return, in search of metal. He figured he'd just follow a river until he got a chance to steal some better metal from one of the small land people settlements along the banks. It might last longer in fresh water, at least. 

Tony concentrated on camouflaging himself. Land people, he'd noticed, could only change their color by changing things they put on themselves. Mer of course could change their skin color, either instinctively, or deliberately. Generally you didn't bother and let yourself just blend in, but when you wanted a mate, the flashier patterns you could show, the more likely you were to score. Tony had never had any problem in that area. Studying metals he'd learned how to simulate really shiny colors, including a red and gold pattern that never failed to attract.

He followed a river for only a few days before he found a good size collection of better clad land-folk traveling alongside it. Tony assumed that if the things they wore were bright colors and had smooth edges that meant they were high on the food chain and probably had better possessions, and better metals, than the people in gray-brown tattered clothing, who were like drab prey fish. He soon learned his guess was correct.

The pod of land people was moving fairly quickly by perching atop four-legged animals, but they stopped often to talk, or to make fires and heat food so Tony didn't have any difficulty keeping up. Tony wondered what heated food tasted like, but more he wondered at the beautiful metal that they all seemed to carry. There were long shining pieces of it wrapped up and tied at their sides, and shorter pieces that they used to cut up their food. He wanted one of the short pieces very badly. He swam closer to shore every night, with his skin turned dark and dull, waiting for his chance. They had so much metal, surely one of them would be careless one day?

And there it was. Lying on the bank on a fold of animal skin, next to a piece of land meat, a lovely shiny short metal. Tony edged up close, using his tail in small, slow strokes to keep the water silent. He reached, but it was a little too far. The bank was smooth mud, and soft, wet grass. He could move on that, he'd done it before. He and his friends used to play on smooth clay banks for the challenge of it. He wriggled on his belly, flipping his tail up under him so the broad flukes could push against the ground. Almost there. He pushed and reached...

And then there was shouting and heavy bodies falling on him, and harsh bindings wrapped around his body and arms and tail. He skreeed in panic, but of course, there were no mer to hear and come to his aid. He thrashed and fought, but there were many of them, and their feet gave them leverage to drag him up the bank, further and further from the water.

"Build up the fire, let's see what we've got!" One of the land people shouted and there was a crash as more wood was placed on the fire that Tony only now realized they'd kept small to fool him into thinking them asleep, and the night was splashed with yellow light.

Tony cursed at them in harsh, staccato bursts of skee and squeal, but their ears and minds were stupid. _He_ could understand _them_ , but his throat could never make their noises. They chattered worse than gulls.

"It's a mermaid!" 

"Well, a merman, anyway. Are they people? It's got hands."

"Monkeys have hands, don't make them people," the first land person said. "It's a fish."

"Don't have scales." One of them pointed to Tony's smooth tail, gone gray in shock.

"Eels don't have scales."

Tony grunted as hands tugged at his hair, pulling up his head.

"No gills. It's not a fish."

"So it's a person? We can't sell a person." The land person sounded disappointed. "Does that mean we have to throw it back?"

"No," the first one decided. "It's like... a seal. You catch a seal, it's yours."

"We could give it to Lord Rogers! I bet no one's given him a merman yet."

The pod seemed to like that idea. They wrapped Tony up in a cloth and tied him on top of one of their animals. Neither Tony nor the animal was pleased about that. "We'll get a barrel and a wagon at the next town," the pod leader said. "Best we do it as fast as we can, before he dries out and dies on us."

Tony lay there and had to listen to them argue about not wanting to travel at night, about what the Lord might give them as reward for their prize, about whether or not a seal would die if he couldn't get water to swim in. The ropes itched and Tony fought them until he was too tired, and then he might have slept, and dreamed about his friends telling him how stupid he was.

 

When he woke, it was daylight, which sifted in dusty yellow blotches through the coarse cloth over his face even though his eyes were gummed shut. He licked his lips and tried hopelessly once more to call for help, but he couldn't even skree. The dusty cloth pulled off his head. 

"Is it dead?"

Something poked Tony in the side and he flinched, opening his eyes and blinking. He was inside one of the things he'd seen a few times. They made animals drag it, but by the clever use of round things, they reduced the effort required. He had figured that out right away. Ground was like water, you had to push against it to move, but using the round things reduced the parts that touched. Another innovation that simply wouldn't work in water. And he didn't know why he was thinking about that now, except that he felt so sick he couldn't think straight.

"No, but it doesn't look good. Get the ropes off and get it in the barrel." 

Tony didn't fight when they removed the bindings. He'd been rubbed raw everywhere it touched, His skin burned like a stupid young mer's first sunburn, only worse, when the fibers scraped, but he was too worn even to flap in protest when they eased him into a wooden thing half full of stale water. He couldn't move his tail, but he curled his arms in and got them under the water, which eased the pain slightly. The only water he could smell was what was in this barrel. Even if he escaped, how far could he crawl before they got him again? He closed his eyes.

"Let's get going."

Things got bumpy, and the land people kept chattering, but Tony paid less and less attention. His tail hurt, and he kept waking up to rub it and try to make it less sore, but after a while that was too much trouble, and he just tried to sleep. He fouled the water and his scrapes burned and he silently cursed these stupid, stupid land people.


	2. Big Fish in a Small Pond

Tony was dragged back to awareness by bright light again. He opened his eyes to squint into the sunshine. The covers on the side of the moving thing had been drawn back, and a land person wearing so much metal he looked as if he was made of the stuff was talking. Only his face showed above the metal. "That's a gift for Lord Rogers? It stinks!"

"You know what they say, fish and company stink after three days," one of the land people remarked from the other side, where Tony couldn't see him. There was a sound of scuffling and then the voice Tony had come to recognize as the pod leader spoke, "It's a merman. Very rare. Feed him up, and give him more water, and he'll be fine. As George says, we only caught him three days ago. Treated him tender, like a newborn lamb, we did."

Tony didn't know what a lamb was, but he suspected it was something that needed to be fed and watered and allowed to move. He opened his mouth and managed a venomous hiss. It didn't last long, but it got the metal dressed man to look at him. "All right, we'll take him. On my authority, the seneschal will remit your taxes this year."

"Thank you, sir!"

The metal man made a hand gesture to other people and they climbed into the moving thing and tipped the barrel over, easing Tony out. He couldn't help skreeing as his tail flopped out, uncurled for the first time in days. The new land people seemed a little more efficient than the old ones, picking him up and carrying him swiftly a few feet away. They put him in something made of wood, longer than he was tall, and slightly wider. It was full of reasonably clean water, but the water smelled of the animals that work for people. Tony grimaced, but it was better than being surrounded by his own waste.

He worked his tail slowly, easing the cramps, and rubbing it. It was a miserable color, dull, dirty gray. He dozed off again, too tired to assess the possibility of escape in his new situation.

 

"Lord Rogers, you may not wish to see the creature. It isn't in very good condition."

"Well, neither am I," came a soft voice. "Allow me to decide what I might see, Sir Barnes."

"All right, all right."

Tony blinked as the metal man and another, this one dressed even brighter than the brightest of the people who'd caught him, came close and stood over Tony's prison to look at him. Tony stared back. The land man had bright blue eyes and sun gold hair, with the bone structure of a man in his face, but his body was that of a slender boy. "Hello," he said quietly. "Don't be afraid. We won't hurt you." He glanced back at the metal man. "We can do better than a horse trough, can't we, Bucky?"

"There's the small pond where we keep live fish for the kitchen. Cook won't be happy, though."

The blue-eyed man-boy smiled. "Well, we can't keep Iron Fin in a washtub, can we?" The boy touched Tony's face, and he hissed in response, a wide-mouthed threatening gape, which didn't seem to bother the man a bit. "Got teeth like ours, so I expect he eats meats and greens."

Tony licked his lips at the thought of food.

"Bring a chair, and some fresh fish- the best fillets, not scrapings saved for the cats."

"Yes, Lord," the one called Bucky or Sir Barnes said. He left and Lord Rogers perched on the edge of the trough, and stroked Tony's tangled hair. Tony would have liked to have pushed him off into the dirt for his pride's sake. But being treated like a stupid animal that amused their Lord was bound to be better than being treated like a wild animal that hurt their Lord. So he settled for hissing when a tangle pulled, and when the fish arrived, he meekly accepted food from the Lord's hand, hand fed like a pet sea-turtle. It was his own greed and stupidity got him into this mess, he really deserved to be treated like an idiot.

 

The kitchen pond was perfectly round, and not very deep, but for first time in days Tony could swim, so he didn't pay attention to much else. The fish scattered out of his way, and hid among the numerous water plants while he worked off his frustrations, and washed the gray out of his mood and his skin. When he finally wore himself out, he bobbed up to the surface, and breathed deeply, scratching with irritation at his overgrown beard. He wished he had his abalone shaver and the bit of silver mirror he used for shaving, lost when he was captured, along with his fish bladder pouch of essentials. He must look like an outcast mer, one with no self-esteem. 

"Hello, Iron Fin."

At Lord Rogers' voice, Tony turned from contemplating the brick wall surrounding the deeper end of the pond back to the place where they'd released him, a shallow slope whose purpose was obvious from the scraps of vegetation, roots and wilted leaves mostly, floating in it. Captive fish, fed on scraps. While Tony didn't think they meant to eat _him_ , he was still uncomfortable to be pent up with food fish. He determined not to tame any of them. He looked at Lord Rogers more closely, now that they were more on a level. Rogers was sitting on a chair, again. Tony supposed chairs were useful, when you hadn't water to support your weight. Rogers' legs were particularly scrawny. Both of them together wouldn't match Tony's tail, and he was on the small size for a mer. 

Rogers leaned down and wiggled his fingers in the water. "This is better, isn't it? Good boy. Come here." 

Tony was inclined to ignore him, but Rogers' other hand was holding a strip of fresh lobster roe. Did he want to refuse something he enjoyed, and maybe annoy the Lord so much that he had to live on kitchen garbage and the dull-eyed tame fish in his prison? He swam warily close, and used his tail to push him up the slope until he was close enough to reach out his hand for the roe, half expecting it to be withdrawn, as a spoiled child does when teasing a pet octopus.

Rogers smiled, apparently delighted, and leaned forward to give Tony the roe. Tony snatched it and pushed away from the slope to eat it in peace. When he turned back, Rogers was still leaning forward, with his chin supported by his hand. "You're blue now."

Tony glanced at himself. Yes, clean water and a little false freedom had cleared the shock color. He was surprised he wasn't more greenish, to blend better with the pond. He must instinctively not consider Lord Rogers a predator. He watched the man for a while, but then became bored and set about exploring the pond. He found a barred opening at the bottom, which explained where the water originated. The water didn't taste like ocean or even river, so it must come from the ground, which meant there was no point attempting to widen it for an escape attempt. He had no desire to be trapped under ground. He emerged into the air again, and the man was still there. He must be as bored as Tony was... and perhaps Tony ought to try to keep him interested. He refused to think that he would be here forever, but while he was here, he might learn from the land people.

Tony bobbed up closer to the man, using his tail to propel more of his torso out of the water, before he shifted his color to shades of curious pink, with curls of bright yellow inquiry.

"Oh!" Rogers said. "That's lovely. I should bring my paints. But would you hold a pose?"

Tony wasn't sure what paints or poses were, but he got the idea that Rogers was pleased. He added a few dotted lines of blue, the color of Rogers' eyes, surrounded by yellow inquiry, but of course that meant nothing to him. 

"Sire."

Oh, it was that Sir Barnes Bucky person again. Sounding disapproving. Tony sank down in the water until only his eyes and the top of his head were above. 

"Yes, Bucky?" Rogers sounded tired.

"Sire, it is getting late. The air is becoming chill."

"I'm not a hothouse flower, Bucky," Rogers said.

"You're not a wolf in winter pelt, either," Bucky retorted. His voice softened. "People are concerned, my liege."

Rogers sighed. "Yeah. Until I marry Lady Carter and get a healthy man-child from her, everyone's worried that I'll die leaving the kingdom in turmoil and cause more trouble than I have all my life." Rogers slapped at his thin legs. "Coddling me won't help."

"I know, Sire." Bucky paused. Then he said, "Do you not wish to wed Lady Carter?"

"Oh, sure, I do. She's beautiful, and smart, and brave... and she doesn't look at me like I'll break if I sneeze. Peggy's not the problem. I am. She deserves better. What if I die on our wedding night? Wouldn't that be awful for her?"

Bucky put his hand on Rogers' shoulder. "Sire, I believe in you. You're strong, where it counts. But sitting here gazing at a fish doesn't improve your image."

Rogers took a deep breath. "All right. I'll go in." He got up and started walking up the slope. Bucky stayed where he was, staring at the water. Tony could tell he was looking at him. FISH, indeed. Tony waited until Rogers was past the slope to suddenly dive and flip his tail strongly, soaking Bucky's shining metal suit.

He rose to the surface and laughed in short bursts of clicks while Bucky spluttered angrily. Rogers didn't laugh, but Tony could see he was smiling.


	3. All the World's an Oyster

Rogers returned to the pond the next morning, just as Tony was becoming hungry enough to consider eating one of the tame fish. There wasn't any sport in it and he had a fellow prisoner feeling, but a mer's got to eat. Rogers was carrying a bucket, and breathing a little heavily by the time he reached the chair that had been left by the slope. "Iron Fin? Come see what I stole from the kitchen for you." 

Tony popped up, curious despite himself. Authority among mer was a complicated thing, based on a combination of your size, age, physical fitness, number of mates, number of offspring, and number of friends willing to fight at your side. He supposed that land people had different standards, but he'd been assuming that Lord Rogers had many friends to make up for all his other deficits. But if he had to steal food, that put him much lower than Tony had thought. It was a puzzle. He swam over to Rogers, his skin roughly equally pink and yellow, with a few bars of brown concern making a chevron pattern over his shoulders and chest. If Rogers had low status how long would he be allowed to spend his time with Tony?

"Good morning," Rogers said. He reached into the bucket and took out a shellfish, a good-size oyster. "Do you want it?"

Tony held up his hands. Rogers waved the oyster back and forth, before he tossed it over the pond, in a high arc. Tony recognized the challenge, and responded by leaping up with a powerful surge from his tail. Showing off, just a little, he flashed a broad stripe of bright red edged in gold down his sides. He caught the oyster, and then popped back up again, grinning.

"I guess you like oysters, then," Rogers said, smiling back at Tony.

Tony came up to the slope until he was lying on his belly not far from Rogers and cracked the oyster against the hard stone at just the right angle to break the hinge, then he used his thumbnail to pry it open. His nails were decently thick and strong, not like the feeble things the land people had on their hands. He'd at least got in a few good gouges when they caught him. The oyster was a good one, fat and fresh. He chewed it slowly. Not as fresh as if he'd got it himself, but quite good.

Rogers tossed him another oyster, but Tony could tell it was dead; the shell was partly open. No one would eat a dead oyster. Well, a fish might. Tony pulled the meat out and tossed it behind him. The fish had become used to him, and now they hurried over to eat the unexpected treat. Better than peelings and scrapings, he was sure.

"Sorry," Rogers said. "Try this one." He held out another oyster. Tony backed up. He didn't really think Rogers was going to do anything, but did he really want to encourage this hand-feeding indignity? Rogers sighed and flipped the oyster into the water. Tony retrieved it. Another good one. He considered Rogers. The man shouldn't look so sad because a pet refused to trust him. Really. Tony cracked the oyster, pried it open and then slid it, still in the bottom shell, up the slope close to Rogers. Then he backed away.

Rogers smiled. "Oh. You want to share. All right." He picked up the oyster, and Tony could see right away he had never eaten one before. He took a moment to realize he needed to break it away from the bottom, and then he looked at the oyster, and back at Tony. Tony made chewing motions to encourage him. Rogers put the oyster in his mouth and chewed. His eyes were squeezed tight as if he expected it to taste horrible. "Oh," he said after he chewed and swallowed. "Bucky's wrong. They don't taste like old rubber gloves."

Tony clicked in laughter. Who would think a fresh oyster tasted bad? Bucky was stupid. 

Tony and Rogers ate the rest of the oysters together, with Tony doing all the shucking, and saving all the shells. If he was left undisturbed long enough, he could make tools from them. Oyster wasn't as strong as metal, but it could take an edge. By the time the bucket was empty, Tony was full and sleepy. He chose a dusky purple with a pattern of small white dots, one of his favorite sleeping colors, for his skin, and swam over to the limited shade the wall at the back made, then inflated his air sac to keep him upright while he napped. Rogers was gone when he woke, but there was a new smell at the slope. He traced the oily, sharp smell to spots of pure color, blue, and purple, and white on the slope. He wondered if that was Rogers' way of telling Tony that he, too, was going to sleep, but it seemed far-fetched to grant a land person that much intelligence.

 

The next day the mystery was cleared, when Rogers showed up with a number of objects that Tony had never seen before. He set up a wooden thing that wasn't much like a chair, and balanced a board on it, and then sat down behind it with another thing that also wasn't quite a chair holding an assortment of small objects, and some things that were obviously tools, but Tony couldn't make out what kind. He swam up, patterned in curious inquiry.

"Hello, Iron Fin! I thought I'd try to get some painting in, while the weather holds good. And before the court gets through arguing about the wedding ceremony." Rogers twisted several of the small things, and the sharp oil smell was back. He squeezed them and there was color! Pink and yellow color! Rogers kept talking about his court and his Peggy, and all his fears and uncertainties. It seemed to do him good to chatter like a gull, so Tony was patient. As an experiment he added a circle of pure blue on his chest, and sure enough, a moment later Rogers was putting blue on the end of a hairy little stick, and smearing it on the board. Tony wondered if this was a form of communication. If so, it was very slow and inefficient. After the sun had moved nearly thirty degrees while Tony swam idly around, letting Rogers see his colors, Rogers stood up and backed away from his board, covering up first one eye and then the other. Then he smiled. "It's silly showing it to you, but everyone else in the castle thinks art means dusty tapestries. At least you won't tell me I'm wasting my time."

Tony had always felt that while art was pretty, and he didn't mind admiring the coral sculptures his favorite female, Pepper, made, it was really pointless. Art is pretty. So are fish, and clouds and birds, and other mer, and you don't have to do anything to see them. So it was only because he couldn't speak Rogers' language that he didn't agree with 'everyone else'. Then Rogers turned the board around so that Tony could see it. 

It was Tony! Well, it was an image very like Tony, only still, and flat, but somehow Rogers had made it look as if it wasn't flat. That was very clever, he had to admit. Impressed, he flashed his shiniest red and gold pattern, but in Rogers' honor, he kept the blue circle. He moved closer. Rogers stayed in place, holding the board and not guarding his tools. Tony lunged up, fast, sliding on his belly to grab the little metal thing Rogers had been scraping over the colors. He slid back into the water, and waved it in triumph.

Rogers leaned over laughing even harder. "You're a magpie, Iron Fin! All right, keep the trowel spatula."

Tony was very pleased with his prize. It was blunt, but it was good metal. He stored it in a niche in the brick wall at the far end of the pond, and every day tried to sharpen it, using oyster shells and the brick wall, but he didn't have much luck. Still, it was metal, and it was _his_.


	4. Kingfish

A few people in dull clothes with only a few patches of color came to the pond at least three times a day to chum the water with scraps, and occasionally they netted a few of the largest fish. Tony stayed at the far end when they were doing that, grateful that Rogers brought him enough decent food he didn't have to descend to bottom feeder levels to live.

If it wasn't for the lack of freedom, Tony would almost have considered this a holiday: no sharks, no nagging to join in the group singing when all he wanted to do was fiddle with his metal collection, no having to stop work in order to hunt dinner. Rogers even started 'accidentally' leaving bright, shiny objects where Tony could get them after figuring out how. At first Tony was insulted, because it was so simple (pull on a string, lift a cup, that sort of thing), but it became more and more complicated until it was almost like they were playing a game.

Rogers obviously still thought he was an animal, but perhaps he thought of Tony as smart as an octopus. They actually did make good pets except for their short lifespans. If they didn't mate, one kind might live for five years, but Tony didn't have the heart to deny his pets their natural conjugals. Which was another drawback to living in this fish pond. Tony enjoyed sex, when he wasn't busy inventing. He could flash colors all day long, but no female mer was going to notice him here. So he might have been less than sympathetic when Rogers talked about the mate he was going to have. He was describing Peggy's beautiful eyes one day, lost in reverie when Tony heard an unfamiliar tread approaching the pond. He flapped and squeed, trying to alert Rogers, but of course... dumb animal... Rogers just tossed him another anchovy.

"So, there you are!" A loud, gruff, voice said. He didn't speak to Rogers with any of the deference of the knights or servants.

Tony stared at the newcomer. He'd grown accustomed to the blandness of land person skin, in its dull shades of unchanging brown, with the occasional faint tinge of pink in the lighter colored ones, but this... this person was a vivid red, unmistakably red. He hadn't any hair on his head, either, but that wasn't so unusual. Tony had seen a fair number of land people, usually males, so afflicted. Tony wondered if this was a different kind. Maybe this was what made a leader? It was certainly eye-catching, but Tony thought it was an ugly red, and he'd quickly become bored with it.

"Yes. Yes, here I am Regent Schmidt." Rogers sounded... small and tired. 

Tony sank down in the water to watch them interact.

Schmidt, the red skin, put his hand on Rogers' shoulder. Tony could see Rogers shiver a little under it, could see Rogers' clothing bunch and crease under the pressure. "You know, people are talking about you, Steve. You're ignoring the court. Why, you don't even _spar_ with your friend Bucky any more." 

"The court, and Bucky, are getting along fine," Rogers said. Tony saw how angry he was by the muscle jumping in his jaw. "As Lord, my time is my own, isn't it?"

"Up to a point," Schmidt said. "But that point does not include weeks spent sitting by the kitchen fish pond, throwing crumbs at Friday's dinner."

"I do my duties. I make the rounds of the court," Rogers said shortly.

Schmidt waved at Rogers' latest painting. "A king may have eccentricities, but first he must prove himself a king. Your throne is not assured. This playing with daubs, and keeping a freak menagerie does not speak of a man who could lead the country. Your body is weak, you must show them your mind and your courage are those of a man!"

Rogers stood up, knocking over the easel (Tony had learned what it was called) and brushing Schmidt's hands from his shoulders. "What would you have me do? When I spar with Bucky, he holds back, and the court calls me weak. When I speak to the councillors, they nod and smile and ignore my words. When I attend a feast, I must eat lightly as a child, and drink like one, lest I enliven the banquet by falling ill! Tell me, how can I show them anything when they have already decided what they see?"

"Go and bring back your bride, as a man would do. Don't wait for her to cross the ocean to you!"

Rogers said, "You always advised me not to travel! You said the change of diet would kill me."

"We can take my ship, the Hydra, and bring along everything you need. It wouldn't be as if you were risking foreign food. The sea air might even do you good and build you up so you could carry your bride over the threshold!"

Tony didn't like the sound of this. If Rogers went away, at best Tony could look forward to eating tame fish and being bored. At best. If the cook got tired of feeding something he couldn't cook... There were no places to hide in this pond. Not for someone Tony's size.

"All right! I'll go!" Rogers said, standing as tall as he could, and glaring at Schmidt. "Make the arrangements! We leave as soon as possible!"

Tony skreed in protest and flapped his tail with a loud splash. Neither land man paid him any attention. Schmidt left first, but Rogers went right after him. He didn't even bother to pack up his painting tools.

 

Hours later, Sir Barnes Buck came to the pond with a lantern, and started gathering the things Rogers had left behind. Tony had tried to paint a message, hoping a regular series of colored dots would at least prove that Tony could count, which had to put him above an octopus. Unfortunately, while Tony could count, he couldn't paint. He wound up making a mess and finally in frustration he had knocked the painting face down on the slope, completing the obliteration of the pattern. Sir Shiny Metal was talking to himself the whole time he picked things up and stuffed them into a box. "That damn Red Skin... I don't care how smart everyone says he is, I don't trust him. Alchemists. They're all nuts, even the ones who don't dose themselves with the 'elixir of life' and turn into monsters." Sir Buck picked up the smeared painting, which was still vaguely recognizable as Tony. He glanced at the painting, and then across the dark pond. "You're a freak, fishman, but at least you're not a monster."

Rogers didn't come the next day. Or the day after. On the third day, when Tony was trying to decide whether to try to eat the disgusting green plants or one of the stupidly tame fish (he was leaning towards the greens, because the damn fish were just so trusting he couldn't bring himself to do it), well on the third day Sir Shiny Stuff showed up. He had a pail in one hand, and he wasn't wearing any metal. He looked tired and angry. "Hey, fish face."

Tony came a little closer, but not too close. What was in the pail, rocks? 

Bucky reached into the pail and pulled out a fish fillet. "Steve's been worried about you. He's sick. Got himself all worked up, and can't get out of bed, and all he can say is 'has anyone fed Iron Fin'?" Sir Buck tossed the fillet at Tony.

Tony caught it, but waited to see if Bucky had any more to say about ...Steve? Must be another name for Lord Rogers. Oh, yes, the Red One had called him Steve. Land people had a lot of names.

"You, he worries about. But himself? Nah. I'm fine, you go do whatever, Buck. And he's let Red talk him into going on the Hydra once he's better! Dear God, what if Steve gets seasick?" Buck tossed another fillet. Tony caught it and held it with the first one. His stomach was rumbling, so he ate a little. Seasick? How can the sea make you sick? Tony clicked a few times, with his skin pink and yellow in query. Instead of an answer, he got another fish.

"At least I got him to agree to let me come with him." Bucky suddenly heaved the contents of the bucket into the pond, which turned all the fish crazy, boiling the water as they fought for scraps. Bucky turned away, and then he looked back. "And you. He's gonna let you go."

Tony's heart leaped. Steve must realize Tony was a person.

Buck walked away, still talking. "Hope it turns out better than the time he let the tadpoles go. Ducks ate them all in a minute."

No. Steve was just 'returning him to the wild'. Well, fine. What did it matter WHY? Tony was going to be free. He gathered up his metal in a bundle, tying water plants around and around until nothing could fall out and then he tied it around his waist. He didn't think they'd give him a chance to pack.


	5. Bucky Doesn't Like Fish

Sir Bucky came by the next day with food and gossip. He wasn't wearing his metal this time, either. Tony suspected that Bucky talked to him because he didn't have anyone else to share his concerns about the voyage, which was sad. Tony wasn't a very social mer, but even he had several good friends. There was Rhodey and Happy, and Pepper, and... well, others, Tony was sure he could think of others, who would swim into dangerous waters with him, if he asked. Not that he'd ask. But he _could_. It sounded like Bucky was Steve's only true pod-friend. That went a way to explaining Steve's fascination with Tony. Lonely mer tended to dote on their pets, too.

Bucky sat down on a chair, idly tossing fish into the water. Tony caught enough to stay his hunger, and ate while he listened. 

"This whole thing is so stupid. Steve's got nothing to prove to anyone, least of all to Lady Carter. She likes Steve fine, just the way he is. She can see his big heart and what a great king he'll make."

Tony clicked and made a few blue circles on his chest in agreement while munching on a freshwater fish fillet.

"Schmidt just wants to get Steve away from court. Probably figures he can make it look like Steve's running away from his responsibilities." Bucky threw a piece of fish so hard it hit the back wall before bouncing off to fall into the water plants clustered there. "I've known Steve since I came to court at seven, to be a page. And there was this little kid down in the stable fighting with one of the stable boys for beating a horse. The stableboy must have been as new as I was, because he didn't know he was punching Lord Rogers. And Steve didn't tell him, didn't once use that. Well, I could see whose side I was on, and I gave the stableboy a good drubbing for picking on dumb animals, and dumber little kids."

Bucky leaned his head back and smiled. "Steve was all... like a bantam rooster up against a big game bird. He wasn't backing down for anything. So, you know, I started looking out for him." Bucky scratched the back of his neck and sat up to throw more fish. "Seven years later, I was made a squire, and supposed to be learning from a knight. But... Steve just said I was his friend, and I'd be his squire. Stubborn little punk. Even Schmidt couldn't talk him out of it. So, I got taught by the royal tutors, which was fine, but more important, I got to stay close to Steve. He's not afraid of anything, and I'm pretty sure he would have killed himself falling out of trees or something, if I hadn't been there."

Bucky leaned down to rinse his fingers in the water. "God, I hate the smell of fish."

Tony clicked derisively. Bucky threw a crab at him. Tony caught it, grinning, and peeled it, eating it slowly while Bucky looked disgusted. "That's it, I'm done." Bucky flung the remaining contents of the bucket in Tony's general direction.

 

"Steve's better," Bucky said the next day. He was tossing fish with less force, so Tony had to come closer to get it before the tame fish stole all the best filets. "He wants me to train you. What do I know about training fish? Come here. Come, come, come."

Tony flashed a jagged series of black and white 'no, negative, never' zigzags over his arms and swam further away.

"Stupid fish." Bucky tossed another fish close to himself. Tony really didn't think Bucky could catch him, not by himself, so he darted up and got it. Bucky didn't even try to grab him, so that was good.

"We're leaving tomorrow. Something about Schmidt reading the stars and it being a 'propitious time', but I think he just wants to show his power. Steve wanted to wait until he was well enough to get you himself." He dangled a fish, waving it back and forth. "He says you're smart, for a fish, and we won't have to net you and drag you out of there."

Tony ate the fish slowly and considered Bucky's words. He clicked slowly, and let his skin go to a neutral blue. He hadn't thought about getting out of the pond. Nets. He didn't like the sound of that. He swam even closer to Buck and took the fish, even though he wasn't really hungry. Thinking of nets reminded him of being stuck in a filthy barrel. Steve wouldn't do that to him, would he? But Steve was still sick, and Red Skin wouldn't care at all about Tony's feelings, might deliberately hurt him just to upset Steve. Tony clicked at Bucky and forced himself to stay almost within touching reach. He didn't like it. He didn't like being touched, except by friends.

Bucky reached his empty hand out, and Tony stayed where he was, but his skin kept flickering black and white until Bucky touched him on the shoulder, and Tony's nerve broke. He jerked away and swam several feet back before he regained control and stopped.

"Huh," Bucky said, "You're warm. Don't feel slimy at all." He reached into the pail with a grimace and pulled up another crab, a big, lively one trying to free its tied claws. "Come here, Iron Fin. Come on, good boy." He put the crab down between his feet and let it scuttle around.

Tony hated this. Training. He clicked in annoyance. He'd bet he was twice as smart as Sir Shiny Buck. But... Sir Shiny Buck was the closest to an ally he had. So Tony came up to get the crab, and let Bucky pet his hair. Dry land person fingers patted him awkwardly. In revenge, Tony broke up the crab and ate it noisily right in front of Bucky. The crab was nice and strong, and wiggled a lot.

Interesting. Tony didn't know land people could turn green. Bucky got up quickly, dumped the whole bucket in the water and ran up the slope, making odd noises. Tony finished the crab and went to check that his metal bits were all secure.

 

The next day the sun had barely risen over the top of the brick wall when Sir Buck came with a group of other men carrying a cloth thing that was flat and long and wide. Long and wide enough for Tony. He eyed it with suspicion. It wasn't a net, but its purpose was clear. Tony swam in small circles, his color fluctuating widely from nervousness. Bucky directed the men to lay the thing down at the far end of the slope. It floated, held up by long wooden poles fastened through the cloth. Bucky waved the men back and then waded into the water and dragged the cloth thing with him, grimacing as he went. He had the familiar bucket in his other hand.

"I don't swim," he said. "So please, don't drown me." Bucky stopped and dug out a length of lobster roe from the bucket. "This is really disgusting. I'm only doing this for Steve. Come, Iron Fin. Please, don't make me hold this gross thing."

Tony considered the matter. Bucky wasn't green, but he was a lighter shade of off-white than usual. He was afraid of the water? But he came in just because Steve asked. That... that was brave. Tony wasn't going to let a land-person outdo him in courage. He swam up and took the roe, actually touching Bucky's fingers for a moment. Then he swam into the floating thing and tried not to let his colors give away his fear.

"Good. That's... good. Great." Bucky stood on the deeper side, holding onto the cloth thing and keeping it from sinking under Tony's weight. "Take it slow, and quiet, men. Careful. Easy."

Tony grabbed onto the wooden poles and tried not to flap as he left the water and they carried him up and over the bumpy ground. They took him to a covered runs on round things. He really, really hoped it didn't have a barrel inside. It did, actually, half a dozen of them, but they were three on either side of a long, shiny white thing, longer than Tony, and full of clean water. Tony clicked and went yellow and pink, not that he thought anyone would understand his question.

Bucky helped settle Tony into the thing and stood back. "Well, good." He grinned suddenly. "A fish in the royal bathtub. I hope you're comfortable, Lord Fin."

Tony wriggled a little and reached down to scratch his tail. He clicked at Bucky. And then he ate the roe, with appreciative lip-smacking noises. Bucky fled quickly. Tony's triumph was short lived as soon there was noise and bustle and jostling that splashed some of the water out as animals were tied to the front of the thing. Then everything was fairly quiet for a while.

"Iron Fin?"

Tony pulled his torso up out of the water. Lord Rogers, Steve, was looking in through the opening at the back of the moving thing. Steve smiled. He was off-white, and thin, and Bucky's arms were around him, helping him stand. Tony clicked in concern, brown chevrons racing over yellow inquiry. "Hey, it's all right," Steve said. Maybe he didn't understand, but he had a good memory for colors. "We're going to the river, where they caught you. We've got extra water, and fast horses, so it won't be so bad."

"Sire, we must be leaving soon." Red Skin's voice came from behind them. Tony hissed. Red Skin looked at Tony. "Really, this is an unnecessary detour. You could have simply given me the creature. I'm sure I could have learned much from it."

"No," Steve said firmly. "I've made my decision, and it stands."

"As you command my liege," Red Skin said, and Tony really wished he had a good knife. He'd like to filet Red Skin and see if his meat was red, too. "But in any event, we must leave soon, or the stars will no longer be in favorable alignment."

What an idiot. Everyone knew the moon affected things, not the stars. Tony settled back in the royal bathtub and used his most insulting color patterns against Red Skin.


	6. Fin Friends

Tony was uncomfortable, but it wasn't too bad. They stopped once briefly the first day, to change horses, and Steve looked in on him. "Hey, let me make you look nice, Iron Fin," Steve said. He produced a brush and comb and starting fussing over Tony's hair and beard. Normally Tony would have resented this, but, well, he would be leaving soon, let Steve say his goodbye in his own way. Besides, it felt good.

"Hey," Steve said softly, moving close enough so even if one of the outriders had been curious, they wouldn't see anything but Steve's back. "I made you a little present. Something to remember me by." He reached into his shirt and pulled out a short necklace made of gold links, with a round medallion in the middle. He turned the medallion over. "I know you like shiny things, so I hope you'll keep it. It says here 'Reward for return unharmed to Lord Rogers'. So, if you get caught again... well, anyway, it's shiny." Steve put the necklace on Tony, and hid it beneath Tony's overgrown beard and hair. "There! Now you're king of the merfolk."

Tony was touched. It was a thoughtful gift, and it must have been difficult for Steve to make it since he was sick. He touched the necklace with his fingers and then flashed red and gold with Steve's blue circles for emphasis. Really, for a land person, Steve wasn't half bad, not at all.

Steve smiled. "I'm sorry Peggy won't get to meet you." He patted Tony on the shoulder, and then went back to his own traveling thing.

 

They stopped again that night to cook food and sleep. Bucky brought Tony a piece of cooked land meat. It was disgusting. Tony tried a nibble, and then spit it out, glaring at Bucky who had the nerve to laugh at him. "That's good steak!" Bucky said, taking a large bite out of the remainder of the flesh, chewing and swallowing and licking his lips. "MMM, you don't know what's good."

Tony skreed at Bucky and flashed annoyed colors and jagged patterns.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. We've got some smoked salmon, maybe. I'll look." Bucky opened one of the barrels and bucketed enough water to refill Tony's bathtub, which made him almost forgive Bucky for the nasty meat.

 

The smoked salmon was better. Edible, but not as nice as fresh. Tony didn't want a full stomach, anyway. He slept uneasily, and dreamed that the Red Skin was eating Steve, and kept offering Tony bites. He was very glad the next day when they reached the river. They used the cloth thing again to carry Tony to the river. He dove deep and chased a few fish for fun, and then leaped as high as he could in the air, with red and gold and blue flashes like stars over his whole body before he dove back again. In the moment when he was highest, he saw Bucky standing at Steve's side, unobtrusively helping him stand straight, and... behind them he saw Red Skin, giving Steve a look of pure hate.

Tony wished he could warn Steve. Really, when you thought about it, Steve had saved Tony's life, and now he'd gone out of his way to let Tony go. Tony owed him. Well, Tony could at least follow the river to the ocean and try to follow the Hydra. It was little enough to do.

 

Tony traveled fast when he had a mind to, and now he was in a hurry. Bucky had described the Hydra as having for a masthead a monster water snake with many heads, which should make it a little easier to identify. Most land folk put people on the masthead, or harmless animals. Of course, finding it by himself would be difficult, but now that he was in water which met the sea, he could sing. "Tony. Tony. Tony here. Land man helped me and he is in danger. Find the land man ship with many-headed snake masthead. Find. Tell Tony. Tony. Tony." He repeated the message for days, as he swam, catching fish and eating as he went. He kept seeing Red Skin eating Steve. Maybe there would be nothing he could do, but he had to try. 

"RHODEY RHODEY RHODEY! What have you been doing, idiot Tony?"

Tony grinned. He sang back, "Tony. Having adventures! Not basking in the sun being lazy."

"PEPPER PEPPER PEPPER! We've been worried sick! Happy's with pod. Rhodey and I are coming to slap you silly."

"Tony. Pepper, you know you love me. Tell you everything when we meet." Singing to cover long distances was tiring. Now he could just sing a little every once in a while to guide his friends.

 

Tony sighed happily when he reached the ocean. He wasn't a seafish, and he didn't need the salt, but he preferred it; the water was softer and more welcoming. Rhodey and Pepper met him and as promised they gave him a tail slapping, but quickly stopped fooling around and became serious when Tony told them the whole story.

"You could have been killed!" Pepper scolded, swimming all around Tony to look for wounds or scars.

"And it would have served you right!" Rhodey added. He punched Tony in the shoulder, not lightly. "You have a pod, mer! You don't have to go off on your own to do stupid things! We'd go with you."

Tony grinned. "Yeah. I know you would. Sorry. But hey, turned out all right. Only now I owe this land man."

Rhodey nodded. "Yeah, all right. We spread the word. Some mer know the home port of that ship. It's not far."

"We aren't going in close to land, are we?" Pepper asked. 

Tony flashed black and white. "No. If Red Skin was going to kill Steve where land people could see, he would have done it a long time ago. He'll wait until they're far from land."

"Well, that's something," Pepper said. Her color eased back into a mottled pink and green which Tony had always found very attractive.

"But what are we going to do?" Rhodey said. "I mean, a land ship is big and it's on top of the water. We can't really do anything."

Tony shrugged. "I don't know. I just know I have to try."

Pepper sighed. "Fine. But you're not going to show off. We'll stay porpoise gray and not flash them. Agreed?"

Rhodey said, "Agreed." And then he slapped Tony with his powerful tail until Tony reluctantly agreed. He always enjoyed flashing ships and making them chase him.

"And shave," Pepper said, handing Tony a pouch with an abalone shaver and mirror chip. "You look like a molting gull."

Tony grinned and accepted the pouch. "Thanks."


	7. Sharks

The Hydra was ugly, Tony thought. The mer had swum beneath it once and seen the barnacles and rot in the belly. The land men only saw the snowy white sails and the polished wood, so they probably thought it was a fine ship. Tony wanted to get close enough to hear what the people said by hiding in a pod of porpoises frisking about the bow, but both Rhodey and Pepper vetoed it, on the grounds that Tony wouldn't be able to resist flashing.

Which, to be fair, was probably true, but Tony was bored. He had metal now, but no chance to experiment. He had Pepper, but she wasn't in the mood for mating. He had Rhodey, but Rhodey was being all serious, and refused to help Tony tease moray eels, or race sharks, or do anything fun. After a few weeks Tony was wondering if he'd misjudged the look on Red Skin's face. Maybe he'd just eaten a bad piece of land meat. Of course, just as he was thinking that, Rhodey said, "Hey, there's something going on at the ship. I hear more noise than usual."

Tony risked a quick leap, shielded by frolicking porpoises. "They're fighting!"

"A leadership bout?" Pepper asked, hopefully. Mer sometimes fought, but it was usually just showing who was boss, with the loser being down ranked, but hardly ever really hurt. "Maybe this Red Skin will be satisfied with becoming pod leader?"

Tony shook his head. His colors were all over the place. "They had metal. They were... cutting at Steve and Bucky."

Pepper put her hand up to her mouth, and went gray. "That's horrible."

"I'm having a look," Rhodey said. "Stay here." Rhodey was bigger than Tony, but he wasn't Tony's pod leader. So Tony swam after him. Rhodey gave him a dirty look, but didn't argue. When they got closer to the ship, the noise and confusion was so obviously centered on the middle of the ship that when Tony pointed to the ropes hanging down, Rhodey nodded. They could climb up and look through some of the holes where things were tied, with little risk of being noticed.

They went up side by side on nearby ropes. It was hard work, but they both had strong arms and they used their tails to push against the ship until they reached vantage points. There was blood on the deck and a wide space was cleared around a wooden raised part with the crew standing around it, all carrying weapons. Bucky was barely standing, but he was standing in front of Steve, who had his back to the wood. Bucky wasn't wearing his metal, and his left arm hung down, bleeding heavily, while his right hand held a long, sharp metal. "Traitors!" he shouted. "You'll be hung for daring to lay hands on your king!"

Steve was spattered with blood, and looked thinner than ever, but he also had a long metal held between both hands. "Stand aside, Bucky," he said. "This is my fight."

"Like hell," Bucky said. "I'm your squire. I stay by you."

"This is very touching," Red Skin said. "But I have business to attend to." He smiled like a shark. "Disarm them. Remember, if one head is cut off, another shall rise!"

The crew swarmed forward. Bucky and Steve fought, killing at least half a dozen of the crew, but that didn't even slow them down. In a few minutes they were both held tightly by the arms and unable to move.

Steve glared at Red Skin. "Go ahead and kill us, then! Let the curse of kingslayer be on your head!"

Red Skin laughed. "That superstition has kept you alive these many years, but no more. I grow weary of pandering to it. Still...why take the chance? The sea is an efficient killer." He looked at Bucky. "You've annoyed me and spoiled my plans for too long to let you die quickly, though." He glanced around the deck, and then pointed to a bubbling pot. "Bring me that pitch-pot." He raised the long metal thing he carried. "And hold him still."

Bucky fought. Red Skin laughed again, and cut off his arm, then painted boiling pitch over the amputation while Bucky screamed before going limp. Steve fought uselessly against the big men holding them. Steve's eyes were wet.

Rhodey looked at Tony and flashed black and white. Tony subsided. Bucky had been annoying, but he'd never hurt Tony. Never deserved this. Tony wanted to kill them all.

"Wake him up," Red Skin said. "I don't want him to drown without knowing he's dying." He smirked at Steve. "Don't worry, he'll be at your side. Until the sharks arrive, at least."

Tony glanced at Rhodey. Drown? They were going to put them in the ocean? Rhodey nodded, and they climbed back down as swiftly and quietly as they could. Once they were back in the ocean they could hear Pepper calling them.

"Are you CRAZY! Get away from there! They've got harpoons! I saw them!"

"Not now, Pep," Tony said. "Not now." He angled sideways in the water, holding his fin shark-fashion and turning it blue-gray to match the commonest shark his size. It was awkward, but at a glance if he let just the tail skim the surface... "What do you think?" he asked Rhodey.

"I think you're crazy. But it might work. They want sharks, we give them sharks." Rhodey followed suit, swimming with his tail on edge.

There was a splash, and then another. Tony darted forward, faster than Rhodey, to grab Steve around the shoulders. "Stay still," he said, even though Steve couldn't understand him. He felt the water displacement behind him as Rhodey took Bucky. They swam as fast as they could at this awkward angle, close to the surface, then dove and straightened into their normal swimming mode. Steve struggled for a moment, then he looked at Tony and stopped fighting.

"Hold long can they last underwater?" Rhodey asked. Mer needed to breathe, too, but they had extra air sacs.

"Don't know." Steve was looking desperate. He hadn't had a chance to inflate his air sacs before he was thrown into the ocean. "Baby breathe!" Tony said. "We're too close to the ship to surface." He'd seen the harpoons, and the machinery that propelled them. They needed to be further away. He opened his secondary air-sac, and like a mother would do for a struggling mer baby in inclement weather when the little one couldn't fight the waves enough to get to air, he put his mouth over Steve's and pressed air into him. Steve twitched, but after a moment, greedily sucked in the air. 

"Ok, got it," Rhodey said a moment later. "Hey, where are we going? We can't keep them in the pod, you know?"

Pepper came up behind them. "You're both crazy. I know a little island that might do. It's got land animals, and fruit trees."

"Good thinking, Pep," Tony said between breaths for Steve.

"Fine. But be careful. Try not to break the coral ring around it. I've been working on that for years."

Tony rolled his eyes. Pepper and her artwork. "When I am not careful?"

"ALWAYS," Rhodey and Pepper answered as one.


	8. With Fronds Like These

Getting two barely conscious land people over Pepper's carefully tended coral ring was a chore. Their skin was very fragile, which the mer discovered when Steve's hand just brushed against a bit of coral, and immediately started bleeding. 

"We could break off some of the coral at the lowest places?" Rhodey suggested. Pepper flashed black and white vehemently no.

"We could jump the coral while carrying them?" Tony suggested. "It's only a ring, right?"

"Yes, it's just a ring, and I've jumped it many times to tend to the inner coral," Pepper said, "But I don't think we can jump far enough while carrying them."

"We could try!"

Rhodey said, "We could wind up dragging them over the coral and killing them, too." He sighed. "Look, switch off, give me the little one and Pepper can watch while I make a test jump over ocean. If she thinks I can make it, I'll do it."

Reluctantly, Tony traded Steve for Bucky. Bucky looked bad. He was almost as gray as a shocked mer, and while his eyes were open, he didn't really seem to know what was happening.

Rhodey jumped. It was thing of beauty, Rhodey's leap. Unfortunately, Steve dangled like a dead fish held in an osprey's claws. Pepper shook her head. "No."

Tony flapped in frustration. "They need to get dry and warm or they'll die anyway."

Pepper scowled. "All right, you can break the coral. When you get them to the beach there are lots of dry coconut palm fronds they can lay on."

Tony and Rhodey shared a look. "Pepper, why didn't you mention that before!"

"I _said_ there were fruit trees!"

"We can use the fronds!" Tony said. "Lay them over the coral and that way we don't have to hurt the coral or the land people!"

Pepper went orange in embarrassment. "I know where there's a lot of them. If two of us go it will save time. Rhodey, can you take both of them?"

"Sure, why not, you only love me for my muscle," Rhodey said, but he was smiling as he took Bucky from Tony and inflated his secondary air sac further to make it easier to keep their heads above water.

Tony and Pepper leapt the coral together, and Tony followed Pepper to a curving beach thickly littered with palm fronds, some even floating in the surf. It didn't take long to gather armloads and get the land people inside the ring of coral, and then swim them to the beach. Moving on land was slow and not something they did very often, but it was possible.

"So, they're here and safe. Can we go now?" Pepper asked. She didn't say anything, but her colors showed how uneasy she felt being around not only land people, but land people who were the victims of unnatural own kind violence.

"They're sick," Tony said. He had brown zigzags of concern covering most of his upper body.

"I know, I know. And they're trapped here and everything's strange for them." Pepper turned a more sympathetic color. "Oh, well, I've wanted to spend more time on this coral, anyway." She flip waddled back into the sea. "I'll go catch some fish for them. They eat fish, don't they?"

"Sure they do," Tony replied. He indicated Bucky. "This one _loves_ fish."

 

It was a few days before Bucky recovered enough to protest eating fish, but long before that Steve had come to full awareness. The first thing he said, while watching Tony tear a coconut apart and punch one of the 'eyes' in so Steve could drink the water inside it was, "You're people. Aren't you?"

Tony went red zigzags against white, the mer equivalent of shouting, 'YES at LAST!' Then he handed Steve the coconut. Steve looked much more pink than usual. Tony wasn't sure if it was signal, or just because he was getting more sun. Steve looked down at the coconut, and then back up at Tony. "Sorry. For you know... treating you like an animal."

Tony clicked, and reached over to comb Steve's hair with his fingers, and then pat him on the shoulder. Steve smiled, but it vanished in a few seconds. "I hate to ask you to do more, but... I'm worried." He looked over to the other bed of fronds under a nearby tree, where Rhodey was patiently shucking more coconuts for Bucky. Bucky had been very quiet. He said he didn't hurt much and that he was glad it was his left arm, but even for a land person, his color wasn't good. "Bucky's... he needs a doctor, and I'm afraid what Schmidt might do. He's going to tell Peggy I'm dead. He can't think she'd accept a proposal of marriage from him, but he might convince her to ally with Merica."

Tony went yellow and pink, and raised his eyebrows, hoping the combination would get through. 

Steve blinked. "Oh. Merica. I don't think it was named for mer. It's just... that's the name." Steve tilted his head. "Or are you asking about Peggy? I wish we could really talk. Then we could make plans. Figure out some way of stopping Schmidt."

Tony nudged the coconut. Even if they could talk, that wouldn't change the fact that Steve and Bucky needed to regain their strength. Tony wasn't sure what a doctor was, but he was sure that nothing was going to give Bucky back his arm. Starfish can regrow arms, and so can octopus, but Tony didn't know any animal with bones that could do that.

"Fine, fine, be bossy." Steve drank the coconut water, and when Tony broke apart the coconut, he ate the soft meat inside, even though Tony could see he didn't like it. He didn't like fresh fish either, but his efforts at making fire by rubbing together sticks from some of the harder trees didn't work. Tony thought it was interesting, so he decided to experiment.

He piled up bits of dry stuff on a dry patch of sand near Steve and then sorted out all the metal bits and shiny stuff he'd saved in a twist of seaweed. Steve watched, at first with an air of amusement, and then he sat up. "Wait! Give me that! That's my flint and steel! How did you..."

Tony grinned and went an innocent blue.

"Yeah, like I believe you. Give that here. I'll show you how to make a fire."

 

A fire was interesting and useful in that once they were able to cook fish, Steve and Bucky started getting better; getting better remarkably fast. Tony had been pleased that they were putting on flesh, but then he looked up when Steve was standing next to the palm tree and frowned. He pointed at the tree and went pink with yellow swirls. Hadn't Steve's head come to a lower leaf scar? Steve looked at the tree and then down at himself. "Huh. You're right. Hey, Buck, come here a minute."

Bucky stood up and went over to Steve. He blinked, and then put out his hand to lay it on Steve's shoulder. "Didn't you used to be shorter?"

"Didn't I used to be scrawnier?" Steve held out his arms. They were darker, from the sun, but they were also thicker. He made a fist, and a genuine muscle popped up in his arm. "Wow. If I'd known, I'd have eaten a lot more fish all my life."

Bucky's face darkened. Tony could read their colors a little now. It was anger. He clenched his fist. "Maybe it's not the fish. Maybe it's just not eating what Schmidt's cook prepared."

Tony looked between them. It was a little awkward, as he was on the ground, with his tail curled under for support, and they were standing on two feet. He clicked, and intensified his color. What difference did it make who made the food?

Steve looked at Tony. "Schmidt's an alchemist. He made potions. One of them is what made him into a monster. He could have made something that kept me weak and sick." Steve made a noise deep in his no longer sunken in chest. "From the time I was a baby. We can't let that man rule Merica."

"We'll figure something out, Steve." Bucky said.


	9. Getting Shipshape

The bad part about Steve getting stronger was that it was harder to resist his need for action. Also, it was harder to feed him. Rhodey, Pepper and Tony worked together to hunt a huge tuna that took the three of them to tow to shore. After taking a few fresh filets for themselves, the mer gave it to Steve and Bucky, and watched in awe as it was turned into a roast and the bones picked clean. Bucky was eating a lot, and packing on more muscle, too. For years he'd taken it on himself to taste Steve's food, which may have been why Schmidt didn't dare to outright poison Steve, so he had some of the whatever it was in him, too.

Bucky taught Steve how to hunt, and the island's small population of wild pigs vanished. Then they started in on the fruit trees, and looked hungrily at parrots.

Pepper called the mer together one day for a meeting at sea. "I like the land people," she said, "but we can't catch enough to feed them."

Rhodey nodded. "Your Steve is bigger than I am now. We need to get them back to their own kind. Or at least to the mainland."

"Steve's trying to build a boat," Tony said. "But he doesn't know how. The tied together logs fell apart. The burnt out hollow tree turned upside down. The woven together reeds sank. The pig hides around wood branches tied together in a round shape _almost_ worked, but it leaked, a lot." 

"Well, then, we have to bring a boat to them," Pepper said, sensible as always. "Steve is a pod-leader. Surely his people would give us a boat for him."

"And how are we going to ask for it?" Tony flashed irritable colors. "Steve's not stupid, and he can barely understand more than a child! How do you expect us to talk to his people?"

"He understands art!" Pepper said. "Show him pictures! Show them pictures."

"I can't draw," Tony said sulkily. "I tried." He flashed a complicated series of colors.

Rhodey pointed at Tony's arm, where the colors were twisting like sea snakes. "Hey, genius. Nobody does patterns like you do." He smacked Tony lightly up side the head. "Draw with yourself!"

"Huh." Tony blinked. "I didn't think of that."

 

It wasn't quite as simple as that. Tony drew pictures on himself, and Steve tried to figure out what they meant. Steve wrote in the sand, and Tony tried to copy the words.

"BUCKY! It's BUCKY!" Steve said one day, tossing his stick down in frustration.

Tony looked innocently blue, and continued putting in an 'F' because while he wasn't sure what it meant, it made Bucky growl. But mostly, Tony did try. There was also the problem that even if he found a ship, they might kill him before they read it. "Show them your necklace," Steve finally said. "And this." He pulled a ring off his finger. "Put this on the necklace. It's my royal signet."

Bucky made a strangled sound. "That's not supposed to leave your person. Anyone could seal an order with that."

"Yeah. Like an order for a boat." Steve put the ring on Tony's necklace.

"They still might kill him."

Tony touched the ring, and then flip waddled back into the ocean. He clicked to get their attention. And then he sang his surface song. Pepper and Rhodey came beside him and added their voices, the light and dark tones blending perfectly. They were a small pod, but well matched. There were no words to this song, it was just for beauty. They sang for a while and then stopped.

Steve was wiping water from his eyes. "Yeah. Yeah. That... I couldn't move. It was just so beautiful."

Bucky shook himself all over. "There's stories about mer song leading ships onto the rocks. It's risky."

Tony shrugged. Everything that was fun was risky. He clicked and dove, with Pepper and Rhodey at his side. He began distance singing to the pods, asking where there was a land ship, a single one not too far away. Steve was getting thin again, there was no time to lose.

 

"This one?" Pepper asked dubiously. The ship was small, and dirty, and even from here, they could hear the crew were drunk and singing songs of their own. Not mer song, not at all. Tony began to get more of an idea what F instead of B made Bucky. 

"I don't... wait! Look at that piece of cloth flying up near the top! Doesn't that look like Red Skin's head?"

"So, they're his pod," Rhodey said, "we'll find another ship."

"No, no! Look closer. See the white things sticking out of it? They're stabbing Red Skin. They must hate him." Tony didn't know whether he'd convinced them, or maybe it was just that Rhodey and Pepper were tired of dealing with land people problems and wanted to get this over with, but they agreed to give this ship a try.

They began surface singing. Within a few minutes the land people stopped making noise. Tony was glad to see that they didn't have harpoons, although there were other things sticking out of the sides that looked unfriendly; unfriendly, but awkward to aim at a mer swimming in the water. At least he hoped they were. Tony moved closer to the ship and raised himself higher out of the water, as he kept singing. Rhodey had reluctantly agreed to stay back, mainly to protect Pepper. The same argument had worked on Pepper, eventually. Tony ran black patterns across white skin. Pattern: REWARD. 

He kept singing, and changing patterns. Pattern: LORD ROGERS. More song. Pattern: ON ISLAND. Song. Pattern: FOLLOW. Song. Pattern: REWARD. Then Tony swam even closer to the spellbound ship, took off his necklace with the attached ring, and threw it up high, high enough to get over the wooden sides. He heard it clatter on the deck, and then he swam back to Rhodey and Pepper.

They stopped singing and waited, colors flickering nervously. The song spell wore off, and the land folk were noisier than ever. Finally they were quiet again, and one of them, a big fellow of a rich dark brown leaped up to stand on the wooden edge of the boat, balancing easily with one hand held in a tangle of rope. 

"SEAFOLK!" he shouted. He waved the necklace in his hand, glinting gold in the sun. "YOU TRY TO TRICK US?"

Tony sighed. It didn't work, and now he'd lost the necklace and the ring.

Other people jumped on the wood, on either side of the brown land man. One was short, and had a flat black hat. One had red whiskers bristling like a walrus and a big black hat. They started shouting at each other. Finally the brown one waved his hands and turned back to the mer. "WHAT THE HELL! WE'LL DO IT! WHY NOT?"

The short one nodded. The red whiskered walrus shouted, "BUT THERE BETTER BE BOOZE!"


	10. Howling Pirates

"All right," Rhodey said that night, as they settled near the ship which had dropped sails and was moving slowly enough it would be easy to find in the morning. "You've got your land ship. Do you really need us any longer? You know, I'm one of the pod's warriors. I shouldn't be away this long."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," Tony agreed. "Pepper should go with you, too. In case of sharks."

Pepper shuddered. She had a fastidious distaste of sharks. They ate so messily. "But what about you, Tony? When are you coming back?"

"Eh, I don't know. After all this, it would be nice to see Steve getting his mate."

"You just want to prolong your adventure," Rhodey teased. "But don't take too long, mer!"

"After all, _our_ mating season is coming up, don't forget!" Pepper flashed all sorts of interesting glow-in-the-dark colors, which was a new trick. Tony would have to figure that out himself.

"I only missed it _once_ ," Tony protested. 

"Well, don't miss it this time!" Pepper flapped at him, and they played for a while, before going to sleep.

 

In the morning, they split up. Tony flash messaged the land ship again, and kept his colors bright so they could easily see him. It was just as well he was going by himself, because he was faster than Pepper and Rhodey. The sooner Steve and Bucky got off the island, the better. Not that he thought they'd turn on each other like some starving stupid fish would do. He didn't really think that. But it wouldn't hurt to get there as quickly as possible.

They reached the island while it was still light, but just barely, and the ship let down anchor just outside the coral ring. Tony winced and hoped that Pepper wouldn't come back until the damage was less obvious. He leaped the coral ring and swam to the beach where he'd left Steve and Bucky. He clicked loudly, and splashed to make sure they heard him.

"There you are!" Steve came out of the little shelter he'd made of palm fronds and ran down to the surf, wading out to meet Tony. He'd come a long way since the scrawny sprat Tony had first met. He'd even learned to swim, after a land person's fashion. 

Tony flashed cheerful greeting colors and pointed over his shoulder at the furled light colored sails of the ship. 

Steve laughed. "BUCKY! Iron Fin brought us a ship."

With only one arm, Bucky didn't swim very well at all, so he hadn't come into the water, but he had followed Steve as far as he could. "Where's the other two?" he asked. 

Tony had a limited number of land folk patterns memorized, and they didn't include anything that quite matched the situation, so he just smiled and let himself be neutral blue.

"They're all right?" Steve asked.

'Yes', Tony gave Steve his red and white jagged pattern, flashing it for emphasis.

"Good, then, that's good." Steve patted Tony on the arm. "Thank you."

 

In the morning, Steve and Bucky gathered palm fronds, which Tony layered over the coral, so they could get out without messing up Pepper's art any further. Steve swam by himself, but Tony helped Bucky, who grumbled, but accepted the necessity. Once past the coral, Bucky looked up at the ship, and Tony felt him stiffen.

"That's a pirate! Steve! It's been raiding the coast for years!" Bucky began trying to back away, but Tony wasn't cooperating. What was a pirate? What was the problem? It was a ship and they'd agreed to help. This was no time to be picky.

The big brown land man was standing on the ship edge again. He yelled, "YES! We're pirates, through no fault of our own! We had a privateer's commission, until Schmidt revoked it and made us all outlaws."

"Why did he do that?" Steve asked. He was treading water, and looking warily at the ship, and at the things sticking out from the sides.

"Because we found out what he was doing to prisoners. He wasn't ransoming them, or trading them for our own people." The brown man scowled. "He was trying to make them into monsters. So he declared us outlaws and set the navy and everyone else against us. We fight because we must, but we are loyal Mericans!"

The little man in the flat hat and the big red walrus shook their heads. The little man said something Tony didn't understand, and the walrus said, "We're not all Mericans, but we are the HOWLING PIRATES!" The whole crew shouted and made a fuss.

Steve looked at Bucky. "I believe them."

"Well," Bucky said, as Tony dragged him closer to the ship. "I guess it's not as if we had much choice."

The ship lowered a small ship on ropes for Steve and Bucky to get in and then they pulled the boat up to the top. From the water Tony couldn't see Steve and Bucky climb out, so he waited anxiously to hear how they would be received. The pirates were much quieter than usual. Steve said, "I, Lord Steven Rogers, rightful ruler of Merica, do hereby grant the crew of this ship full amnesty for any past crimes, and a commission in the royal navy in return for your aid against the usurper, former Regent Schmidt, the alchemist."

The quiet continued for a moment, and then Tony heard the unmistakable bellow of the walrus. "DOES THAT INCLUDE BOOZE?"

"Hell, yes," Bucky said.

The crew cheered. Tony wondered what booze was.


	11. Narrow Squeak

Tony couldn't very well join the planning, but he listened as Steve took charge. "Schmidt has a three week lead on us," Steve said. "If he reaches Lady Carter and persuades her to sign any pact with him, it may take years to undo the damage."

Bucky said, "People didn't think much of Steve, back when he was... little. So they might stick with Schmidt even after Steve returns. We'd have a civil war on our hands."

One of the pirates, Tony couldn't tell which one, said, "They'd be sorry, after he runs out of prisoners and starts turning _them_ into monsters."

"That will be too late," Steve said. "Is there no way we can stop him in time?"

"The Commando is a good ship, but she can't fly. If the Hydra runs into unfavorable winds, we might catch her."

Tony clicked loudly to get Steve's attention. Steve came over to the side of the ship and looked down. They had all sail on and were moving fast, so Tony was hanging onto one of the dangling ropes to stay close. He flashed black and white 'No'.

"No? No, we won't catch her? How do you know?"

Tony pulled up higher on the rope, and concentrated on a simple image- a mer, then a line of mer, and then, a crude image of the Hydra. His chest wasn't big enough to draw anything elaborate, but he hoped Steve got the idea.

"You're talking to other mer, and they tell you about the Hydra?" 

Steve was smarter than the average land person. Tony flashed vehement red and white 'Yes'. Steve turned back to the pirates. "If we can't go faster can we... I don't know, I've never sailed before, can we go straighter?"

"Short cuts at sea?" Bucky said, sounding dubious. "That doesn't make sense. It's all the same water."

"We could..." one of the pirates said, and then a shouting match began, so loud and fast Tony couldn't keep up with the words. Tony quite understood why they called themselves the Howling Pirates. Finally Steve interrupted them.

"You're saying it's possible, but it's dangerous."

"Yes." Tony was fairly sure he recognized big brown's voice. He seemed more sensible than most of them, and howled less. "There's a passage, narrow and rocky. It cuts off several weeks journey by going through, instead of around, the tip of the coast. Wouldn't save enough time, though, because you have to go dead slow, sounding all the way. The water's shadowed by cliffs, and you can't see the danger until your hull is ripped open."

"Iron Fin could guide us." Steve went back to the side and looked down. "Couldn't you? We could rig up a simple signal with ropes, couldn't we?" Steve's eyes were so big and blue and hopeful that Tony couldn't say no. He flashed agreement. Anyway, it would be an adventure, something to sing about. Females liked hearing about adventures, even Pepper did, after she finished scolding him.

 

Once they entered the passage Tony only had time to call himself an idiot once. He had to swim at full speed ahead of the Commando, stay deep enough to watch for outcroppings of rock, make sure he didn't tangle the left and right guide ropes or get them confused, and then surface for a quick breath of air whenever there was a clear space ahead. There weren't a lot of clear spaces, and there was no suitable place to safely moor the ship, so they ran the whole passage in one go from pre-dawn to afterglow, with Tony thanking fate that it was one of the longer days of the year.

Tony was fit, and he was fast, and he liked danger, but at the end of the passage, he barely had energy enough to flash the all clear to Steve, who had stayed the whole time at the bow, watching Tony. Then Tony wearily swam to one side of the ship, inflated his air sacs and put on his sleeping colors, ignoring the bustle on the ship as the land folk put down anchors and repaired the small damages caused by all the abrupt changes of course.

 

They started again, early the next day after Tony had spoken with mer and confirmed that they were on course for the Hydra, and now only a few days behind.

"Can you keep up?" Steve asked as the Commando put on all sail, and caught a favorable wind.

Tony flashed a reluctant 'no'. Normally, he would have tried, but he was really, really tired. He hung onto a rope and let the ship drag him. A few minutes later, the small ship splashed down in the water next to him, lowered by ropes at either end, and kept close to the big ship. Steve stood up in it. "Get in and I'll put enough water to keep you comfortable."

Tony pulled himself up and looked in the little ship. It was empty, except for a bucket and Steve. It was wider than the royal bathtub, and about the same length. Tony shrugged and climbed in, with Steve's help. Steve bucketed in water until Tony's tail was covered. Any more and the ship wouldn't be floating. It was good to be able to rest. Tony watched Steve climb back up into the Commando, and then he dozed off.

 

Tony slept the day around and woke up starving, hungry enough to eat the salted fish the pirates had offered him before. It was fairly horrible, but there was no time to hunt. They would be coming up on the Hydra the next day. This close Tony could hear more mer talk, not just the long distance song. So far they hadn't noticed any unusual activity, but since mer mostly ignored land men's ships, they could have missed signs that Hydra knew it was being followed.

"Iron Fin," Steve called him so Tony swam over to see what he wanted. Tony was a little stiff from sleeping in the boat, but he would have it worked out in plenty of time. "Stay back once we have the Hydra in sight. I don't want you to get hurt."

Tony went black and white jagged. What, did he come all this way, just to _watch_?

Bucky was at Steve's side. "We're going to try to board the ship. Steve wants evidence against Schmidt. You haven't got legs. You don't have armor." He rapped his hand against his chest, which Tony now realized was covered in metal. Dull metal, and not decoratively engraved like his shiny suit had been, but still metal. "You don't have weapons."

Steve said, "And there will be fire, and cannonballs."

Tony went pink and yellow in query. Fire he knew, but he didn't see how much danger it could be, after all there was plenty of water all around. Well, dangerous for land people if their wooden ships burnt, but certainly no danger to him. But what was a cannonball?

"Look fish face," Bucky said, "see those?" He pointed down at the black things that stuck out on either side of the ship. Tony had seen them before and assumed they were some kind of weapon, but he'd only had glimpses of them as they had been usually covered up by wooden hatches. "They use fire to shoot big metal balls, shoot them a long way, dozens of times further than the length of this ship. They're big enough, and heavy enough, to punch holes in ships. They'd break you up like a.... like a _crab_."

Tony looked at the opening in the front of the nearest of the weapons. It was big. He could fit inside it. He visualized a force strong enough to throw a metal ball the size of Tony dozens of times further than the length of the Commando, which was more than five times as long as Tony. Reluctantly he agreed, it would be like a fingerling fighting an octopus. He'd be gone in a snap, barely noticed. He huffed and patterned agreement.

Tony called the other mer to warn them of the upcoming conflict and to stay away. He told them of the range of the cannonballs to make sure they'd be safe. There was only one mer reluctant to listen, a young male, reckless with the need to prove himself, but after Tony told him a few horror stories about land people _cutting_ fellow land people, young Peter fell back to swim beside Tony.

"Why do they do this?" Peter asked, all pink and yellow, bright with curiosity.

"I think it's because they can't swim. They move so slowly they get in each other's way and that makes them fight," Tony replied. "Also the pod leader on the Hydra wants to be a bigger pod leader." Tony considered his answer. It didn't seem enough. "And he's crazy. He got into toxic water and it messed up his brain."

"Oh." Peter was silent for a minute and then he said, "Why are the others following him, then?"

"I... I have no idea." Tony shrugged.


	12. Sea Monster

The Commando was smaller than the Hydra. Tony wasn't sure whether that was an advantage or a disadvantage. He did notice that the Commando turned (he heard them call it 'tacking') in a shorter radius, and was faster, and while they had fewer cannonball throwers, there was a smaller interval in between firing, which he tried to tell himself meant that they were more experienced, better fighters.

Unfortunately, after the first round of shots, he could also tell that the Hydra's cannonballs flew further, so unless they got in close, the Hydra could pound them to pieces without risk. Peter kept looking back and forth between the two ships. Tony suspected he was figuring things out, too. Little fish seldom won in a conflict with big fish.

He could see Steve's bright hair and the shiny metal he waved overhead, pointing at the Hydra. Tony couldn't hear any of the shouting over the sound of the cannonballs, but all the Howling Pirates had their mouths open. They didn't seem frightened. The Commando kept tacking and getting closer and closer to the Hydra. Then both ships started throwing fire at each other. People on both ships ran back and forth putting out fires and throwing fires. Tony couldn't tell which ship was having the better of it. Peter was flickering all sorts of random colors and questions, but Tony had no attention to spare for him. It looked as if the ships were going right for each other. 

There were a lot more people on the Hydra than the Commando, but were they fighters? Steve had talked about Schmidt surrounding himself with people to make him look good, cooks and lesser alchemists and people who mainly were supposed to jump up and salute when Schmidt was nearby. Sure, they'd beaten Steve and Bucky when they were both sick from years of bad food and it was the whole ship against two, but the Howling Pirates all were fighters. So, once the Howlers got onto the Hydra, they'd win, wouldn't they? They were so close now the Pirates were throwing ropes with clawed ends at the Hydra. The Hydra people were cutting the ropes rather than throwing their own, so they must be afraid of fighting hand to hand. Tony was cheered by that and by seeing Red Skin running around, mouth open as he beat on his own people and even stuck a metal through one that tried to run.

Red Skin was afraid. Tony followed the line of Red Skin's gaze, and saw Steve. Steve standing straight and tall, and... really, really strong. That had to be a shock for Red Skin. Tony looked at Steve and smiled. Steve was going to win.

Peter nudged Tony in the side. Tony turned to him. "What?"

"What are they doing with that mer?"

"Mer? What mer?" Tony looked back at the Hydra. There was a net being hoisted up from somewhere inside the ship. A skinny, gray and obviously terrified mer was in the net. "What have they done to that poor mer?" And why were they dragging him up in the middle of a battle?

Red Skin ran up to the netted mer and shouted something in his face, pointing at the Commando. The mer shivered, and didn't respond until Red Skin stuck him with blue glowing metal, making his ragged tail fin bleed. The mer cringed and flickered 'yes, yes, yes'. 

"If Steve doesn't kill Red Skin, I will," Tony said to Peter, feeling really fiercely angry. This was worse than when he was caught. Red Skin _knew_ what yes meant. He knew he was torturing a person. Tony wondered how long that poor mer had been locked away in the belly of the ship. Had he been there when Steve and Bucky were? Had he been there longer?

Red Skin's men pulled the mer out of the net. And then they cut him, cut him deep, and threw him over the side into the ocean. Were they totally insane? Why kill him now? Tony started swimming toward the mer, with Peter only a heartbeat behind him. Damn the cannonballs, they weren't going to leave a mer to die alone. The water suddenly shifted, and there was a pressure wave, stronger than tidal, more like a small tsunami. Like something really big had fallen into the ocean.

The water was so turbulent, Tony couldn't see, so he rose to the surface along with Peter. "What?" Peter had gone gray, and Tony suspected he had, too. "What is that?"

Where a mer had been thrown into a water, there was now a huge green, raging monster with a long, looping tail and a face full of teeth like narwhal tusks. But it sang like a mer, a twisted mer full of hate. It swam towards the Commando, whose crew were frozen in place by the horror of the song, rather than the beauty. "Go, Peter!" Tony swam straight for the twisted mer's head. He reached it a moment later and wrapped his hands around two of its teeth. "Friend, friend, friend," he sang with all his heart. 

The monster shook its head and sang hate. Tony clung as he was shaken from side to side. It hadn't bitten down, but its eyes were green and mad as any blood-crazed shark so he wasn't counting on that lasting for long.

Then Peter sang. The lad had incredible range. Somehow he combined distance and surface song. "FRIEND, FRIEND, FRIEND," Peter sang. Other mer picked up on the urgency of the message and joined in. The chorus flowed all around, filling the water, filling Tony's heart, running through his hands down to the fangs he held so tightly his hand bled. The monster stopped shaking and its hate song grew softer. Flecks of confused color scattered over its skin, in no pattern at all. It stopped swimming towards the Commando.

Tony let go, and sang, "FRIEND."

The monster sang, "FRIEND," back and Tony was relieved for an instant. Then it turned pure vivid green again, and twisted to face the Hydra. "HATE!" it sang and rammed into the ship, making a huge hole in the side. Land people screamed and fell off the ship into the ocean. The monster found Red Skin clinging to a piece of floating wood. "HATE!" it sang. "HATE!" it sang as it bit Red Skin in half, and flung the pieces far away. "Done," it sang softly. Its color faded to brown and it began shrinking. It plucked a sharp metal from one of the flailing land men. "All Done," it sang, and the song told Tony what it meant to do.

Tony grabbed the mer's tail and pinched it. 

"Ow!" the mer said, dropping the metal in surprise. "Why... you shouldn't have done that! I could have hurt you."

"Yeah, yeah, but you didn't." Tony grabbed the mer's arm and began pulling him away from the drowning land men. He really didn't care whether Steve got any evidence (whatever that was) or not. "Come on, you need a combing, badly."

"And something to eat," Peter said. "I could use something myself. I'm hungry." Peter patted the mer on the back. "I'm Peter, this is Tony. What's your name?"

"Bruce. But... I'm not. I'm not safe. I... get angry and I get big and mean."

"That might come in handy, you know?" Tony said. "Sharks, and killer whales?"

"I can't control it!"

"Sure you can. You were big, not deaf. You knew who your friends were." Tony tugged on Bruce's arm. "Come and meet my friends. They're land people, but don't hold that against them."

"I... really shouldn't."

"You really should." Tony tugged, and Peter got on Bruce's other side and pushed. "They have something called 'smoked salmon'. It's nasty, but eh, it's food." Tony used his tail to kick aside one of Red Skin's men who was trying to latch onto them.

"IRON FIN!" Steve shouted. He had his hands on his hips and he looked annoyed. 

Tony grinned up at him. "Hey, Steve. Meet Bruce. He can turn into a giant green rage monster. Isn't that amazing?" Of course Steve didn't understand a word of it.

Peter bobbed up beside Tony and Bruce. "Hi, I'm Peter. What's smoked salmon like?"

Bruce turned orange. "I'm... I'm sorry about... I didn't really want to... but you know..."

Bucky leaned over the side of the ship. "I don't understand squeaks and colors, but whatever. Hello, fish faces."

The red walrus whiskered Howling Pirate shouted, "BREAK OUT THE BOOZE. WE WON."

"Set sail for Albia," the brown Howling Pirate ordered. "Lord Rogers goes to claim his bride!"

Steve sighed. "All right, fine. But how I'm ever going to explain this to Lady Carter?"

"Eh," Bucky said, "What's to explain? Schmidt kept you a shrimp all your life, chopped off my arm, threw us overboard, we got better, made friends with fish and a huge green seamonster ate Schmidt."

Bruce said quietly, "I didn't actually _eat_ him."

"Just as well," Tony said. "He would have disagreed with you."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Blakefancier for suggesting the Howling Pirates. ;^)
> 
> Based on this [ AvengerKink prompt](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/17613.html?thread=40910029#t40910029).
> 
> Supposed to be a short one-shot, but it insisted on plot. Oh, well...
> 
> Mer Info:
> 
> Mer tails are similar to porpoises, but like sea lions the fin can be turned under to enable them to move on land. All of their skin has an octopus-like ability to change color, only far more sophisticated, being able to control not only color but intricate patterns, used as communication, decoration and mate attracting. Some common patterns (in order of emphasis) include swirls, circles, chevrons and zigzags.
> 
> Involuntary gray is shock, but it can be deliberate, as when disguising oneself as a porpoise.
> 
> Solid blue and green are fairly neutral and don't need to be thought about.
> 
> Jagged series of black and white means 'no, negative, never'. The same in red and white means emphatically yes.
> 
> Pink is curious. Bright yellow is questioning. Brown is concern. Orange is embarrassment.
> 
> Dusky purple with a pattern of small white dots is one of Tony's sleeping patterns. Sleeping patterns generally look like reflections on dark water, so are often a dull shade of green, brown, blue, or purple with dots, nets, diamonds or other small regular motifs in a contrasting light color or white.
> 
> Tony's favorite attention seeking pattern is a metallic red and gold pattern that emphasizes his muscles and makes him look bigger than he is.
> 
> Mer Communication:
> 
> The mer have a number of communications systems which they use in combination whenever applicable. 
> 
> Colors and patterns have little detail, but are fast and intimate when you're close to someone. 
> 
> Audible speech is in several kinds. Underwater or surface talking to a nearby mer is as detailed as human speech. Underwater distance talking is more like old-fashioned telegraphy- you could be detailed, but it 'costs' a lot more effort to be clear and 'loud' (also it can get 'lost' if too many other mer are also using it) so mer tend to make the speech short and use it for important/emergency things. 
> 
> Surface singing is emotional and carries only basic feeling, there's little actual informational content. Among themselves the mer use it for pod bonding and simply because it feels good.


End file.
